Still Life with Woodpecker

“My old typewriter was named Olivetti. I know an extraordinary juggler named Olivetti. No relation. There is, however, a similarity between juggling and composing on a typewriter. The trick is, when you spill something, make it look like part of the act.”

The Prologue is written from a first-person perspective in the voice of the author that is about to undertake writing this novel. He is using a new electric typewriter, and in this quote, reminisces about his old manual typewriter. He adds to the sense of the Olivetti’s personhood when he connects it to a juggler, but this reference also connects to the author’s perception of the writing process and tells the reader a lot about how he approaches his craft. The humor in the final sentence of the quote is characteristic of Robbins, who often undercuts serious or big questions with a sense of humor or spontaneity.

“There is only one serious question. And that is: Who knows how to make love stay?”

Although Robbins explores a number of themes in this novel, it is also the love story of Leigh-Cheri and Bernard. This question is raised repeatedly throughout the novel. His assertion that it is the only serious question, however, belies the other issues that Robbins explores throughout the novel.

“Since Hostess Twinkies always traveled in pairs—because like the coyote, the killer whale, the gorilla, and the whooping crane, Hostess Twinkies mate for life—there would have been a Twinkie each for you to share.”

Bernard eats a Twinkie while sitting behind Leigh-Cheri on the plane. This is an early example of the way Robbins treats objects throughout the novel. As he draws a parallel between the Twinkies and several examples of animals, he blurs the line between object and animal, even giving the Twinkies the agency to “mate for life.